- Murad is a Chechen hero
- BBC News Arabic – Ma’an, Jordan
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On the morning of Monday, the nineteenth of December, the Jordanian authorities surprised their citizens by accusing the Salafi-jihadi movement, or what they describe as the “takfiri” movement, of killing a senior police officer and three security personnel days later, after a raid on the killer’s house in the Husseiniya area. On the outskirts of the southern governorate of Ma’an, which has an estimated population of about 170,000 people, who are predominantly tribal.
These events coincided with the transformation of peaceful popular sit-ins into riots and violence in different regions, but they were concentrated in Ma’an.
The people of Ma’an constitute the equivalent of 60 percent of the transportation sector in Jordan, according to official figures, so the increase in fuel prices affected them greatly.
Sheen and politics
Ma’an and its protests, among other factors, were the cause of the political shift towards a parliamentary life that would end martial law in Jordan, through what is known as the April Gift, in 1989.
The protests constituted one of the most significant security-political challenges Jordan faced.
Ma’an was also strongly present in bread-related demonstrations in the mid-1990s, and the beginning of the millennium witnessed the emergence of a strong jihadist movement.
Ma’an is distinguished by its tribal character and its residents’ great sense of marginalization, says Dr. Zaid Eyadat, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.
Eyadat says: “Opinion polls show that the people of Ma’ani, and the people of the south in general, are the least trusting of the government, and the least optimistic about the future.”
The opposition activist and former mayor of Ma’an, Majid al-Sharari, says that Ma’an, despite its geographical location, between the agricultural (Al-Shoubak), tourism (Petra) and commercial (transportation lines) sectors, is “merely a cash cow for successive governments, taking from it and marginalizing it in return.”
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bug economy ills
This feeling of marginalization was evident when a team from BBC News Arabic went to meet the protesters in Ma’an.
One of them said that he broke his fireplace because of the high fuel prices. Another said that the marginalization that Maan suffers from is intentional and pushes to clash.
Attempts by BBC News Arabic to obtain government permission in this regard were unsuccessful.
Historically, Jordan relied, specifically after the clash of armed Palestinian organizations with the regime in Jordan, in what was known as the Black September era, to confine the public sector, specifically the security and military, to citizens of East Jordanian origin, while the private sector remained more prevalent among citizens of West Jordanian origin. It is one of the most sensitive issues in the country.
This form of the rentier state changed with the state’s attempts to shift from it to market economy policies, and thus affected the Jordanian clans who depended for their livelihood on the public security and military sector in particular, which is what made them lead the protests that were known as the movement since the start of the Arab Spring. Of course, Ma’an was no exception.
Jihadists
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Demonstrators gather to protest alleged police brutality and the recent killing of a local resident in a house raid, Ma’an, Jordan. June 25, 2015.
The truck drivers assert that they have nothing to do with the jihadists or the riots, and they stress the peacefulness of their strike.
The main suspect in the killing of the deputy police chief of Ma’an at the beginning of the riots, he was killed in a security raid, and his name was not officially announced, but an official statement indicated that he had four brothers who were involved with him, and they were arrested.
Sources told BBC News Arabic that they have a fifth brother, who was killed in Syria while fighting for the jihadist organization, which was known at the time as “Jabhat al-Nusra.”
BBC News Arabic, cannot reveal his name as long as it has not been announced by the authorities or by his family, but rather it is a name circulating on social media.
Hassan Abu Haniyeh, an analyst of Islamic groups, says that, contrary to what many people think, the Salafist movement is still present despite the security campaigns in Jordan and the setbacks that this movement suffered in Syria and Iraq.
Abu Haniyeh added, “Their recruitment patterns have changed by relying on family ties. There are entire families who embrace the jihadist ideology.”
Targeting security leaders, especially members of the tribes, in light of the existence of a state of political turmoil, is a tactic resorted to by the jihadists, after the defeat of the organization known as the Islamic State, in Iraq, specifically in Diyala Governorate, for example, which is considered one of the tense areas in the first place.
The state of tension due to economic difficulties is clearly visible, which may be reflected in the emergence of various security threats.
This crisis, in which Ma’an has become a main title, has become at the core of the reality of the Jordanian state.